Please pray for these good souls

I ask that the kind readers of my blog pray for:
Sr Julia,
Bradley
Bill
and Dawn
May God give them strength and shower them with His love and mercy in their hour of need.
Amen!

Reconciliation

The Sacrament of Reconciliation has always been one of the sacraments of our Lord that helps us connect to Him. Why can we get so close to God when we only kneel before the priest in the confessional?

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

We start our connection by establishing the first formula with which we establish our foundation upon which we will build our whole dialogue, instead of saying Hello, we have based our beliefs and we begin our confession by setting the base greeting with which we call upon the Merfcy of the Holy Trinity. Therefore, the priest from the other side suddenly becomes somebody we have grown to know each day. He acts in persona Christi, in the person of Christ (instead of Christ), creating the bond between Him and us. So this connection is not established by a crystal bowl or the calling of spirits, but by sound faith and a sound relationship with God.

We are faced with the recollection of memory of our passed sins before we enter the confessional, and as we kneel and cross ourselves, we in fact face our inner self, sinful as it is, and bow before God's eternal blessing, wisdom and mercy by letting his light guide us through the confession, by confessing everything we confess that we are sinful, but that we want to become better. Confession is not a place where the weak come to be weaker. In fact, the ones weak from their sins usually come there to become stronger. Because it takes great courage and strength to face our sins, our wrongdoings and our going astray.

After we confess our sins or ask for guidance, we hear something which is greater than anything we've heard before. After the penance due for the sins we've committed we hear something which we haven't expected. I went wrong, I confessed and the Lord is Merciful enough to forgive all of our sins! What Power and at the same time what Mercy we are faced with. The sins we commit as we go through the Stations of the Cross, are in fact a modern representative of the people participating in Jesus' passion on his way to Calvary. If we try and re-live those moments of the life of our Lord, we can see our sins from another perspective.

The powerful psychological image of the Confessional, is something we find in other practices as well. If you go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, you do pretty much the same. But the psychologist or psychiatrist can never do one very important thing - forgive our sins. This glorious duty is only entrusted with our priests.

If you can find Michel Dangoisse's, Laissez-Vous Reconcilier avec Dieu, (Reconciliate Yourselves with God, also translated as Accounts 0r Testimonies about Reconciliating with God) or a similar book that explains why you need to go to confession, might help those of you who are still in doubt of whether or not you need to confess.

It's better than going to your local square and shouting from the top of your lungs "I HAVE SINNED", because I doubt that even God would like to hear you:) when you can ALWAYS go to Church and open up! And don't worry, your sins will never be heard by anyone else as the priest is obliged to keep them to himself even if he is under threat for his life, and the only cost you have to pay is to be penitent.

From my personal experience, I believe that confession has made me stronger and has given me a guidance in life, but most importantly it brought peace and happiness to my soul. The Holy Trivium is a wonderful time to go to Confession. Why not use it? You always know that there will always be a door open for you there.

Entering...Entered:)

Well, the biggest challenge of all was of course to make the selection of Church and tradition. Something was wrong, I did not get what I want from the Orthodox Church. The splitting up of churches in 1054 instead of ending there and getting the dialogues going, it had gone further down in the East. With the split of the Bulgarians and others each and every country forgot Constantinople and decided not to recognize the surpemacy which used to belong to "the New Rome" in that period after the split with Rome.
Now this is something huh? Suddenly all that I had been hearing of having something "ortho-dox" (right way) in your church. And there had been a talk going on against Catholicism. There's another problem. There are Orthodox Churches that don't recognize each other. Each country has its own Orthodox Church, but there isn't a THE Orthodox Church anywhere.
During my reading of the Bible I stumbled upon Matthew 16:18:

Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Now who and where's Peter? Of course as the more informed amongst you already know he resides and is succeeded by means of Apostolic Succession in the Holy Father - the P0pe.
So I said to myself: What am I waiting for? I never realized the wealth of the Internet before. Being able to inform yourself is something wonderful. I started gradually building up my knowledge and reading everything I could. With the help of a wonderful person from the USA, I could even receive books and read them in hard copies:)
After much reading and self-preparation as well as a great support from my friend, I decided to visit my local diocese. I was welcomed as a friend and was not scorned but instead I was listened to very carefully and I received the explanation. I was given a choice to either join or only participate within the Church. My inner-self knew that just participating would not help my need for God. I had to enter into full Communion. It is something deeper than you have ever felt before, you just know that it's there, waiting for fulfillment and nothing you can do can stop it in any way. You're not aware of how strong this feeling was! I just had to keep going and it gradually developed into something greater. Fortunately I had a great guide and received, God willing, an even greater father and brother in Christ.
Developing into a Catholic took a great courage and strength, which I have never believed nor expected to happen. Courage because you are getting into something new and partly unknown and strength because you're facing up a community and an outer world that might not accept your decision with open arms. But there is only one way to go by it. Accept what you want and more importantly accept God with all your heart and with all your mind.
After I have converted, I changed. For the better. And people noticed it and are still noticing it. Conversion is only the beginning. After my conversion I grew and am still growing spiritually.
So therefore I have proudly entered the Catholic Church in 2007.
My next posts will concern my growth, I'll try and recommend books and sites as well as practices I've found helpful.
Semper In Christi